In a move that's not exactly surprising, Valve has quietly removed the Steam Machine section from Steam.

Previously on Steam, if you hovered over the Hardware category there was a Steam Machines link in the drop-down, which is now gone while the links to the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Vive remain. In fact, the entire Hardware page on Steam is now gone and anyone using the link (http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/) is redirected to a basic search page. Looking back on it and doing a bit of quick research, it seems the change came this month.

I'm not surprised they did this, since currently no one is announcing new machines and the whole Steam Machine idea from Valve never really gained any steam. While it didn't really do the big splash many were hoping, it has done quite a lot of good for Linux gaming overall. As a result of the initial push from Valve, many developers and game engines have moved into doing regular Linux support. This is important, because many of the barriers involved in getting games on Linux have been removed.

We know for a fact that porting companies like Aspyr Media (original interview) and Feral Interactive (original interview) started doing Linux versions thanks to SteamOS and Steam Machines, with them both still continuing the effort. It's also likely what pushed GOG to support Linux on their store too, since they didn't want to miss out on the possibility of more Linux gamers to buy games.

Realistically and looking back on it all, the time just wasn't right. There were long delays, not enough "big" games to make people truly interested in the platform (especially when the likes of The Witcher 3 was confirmed and then never happened—still hurts) and various other reasons.

We now have over four thousand Linux games on Steam, with more releasing every day. Of course, that's just a number and there's a fair amount of rubbish, but that's only natural to see. The good news, is that we get a lot of decent games arrive on Linux too and there's no signs of it slowing down.

It will be interesting to see if Valve do another SteamOS/Steam Machine push, with SteamOS still seeing updates this year it's entirely possible. Either way, Valve has done a lot of good and continues to do so. They're not a perfect company, not all their ideas work out and that's fine.

Linux gaming still faces an uphill battle—a large one at that. Thankfully, no one company "owns" Linux and so it can essentially go on forever, keep improving and gradually get better over a long time. We will still be here no matter what, we love Linux and we have so many good games already we don't know what to play half the time.

Thanks for the tip, kreativt. Article text was updated to be clearer after publishing.

I saw this coming many months ago. I feel everyone did. Sadly I also see the market share dropping a tad but and some companies going back to Windows only.

Also the thing that could have hurt steamos is the fact it's linux. And a lot of people prefer to play games on their desktop on the distro of their choice. Why build or buy a steam machine when your desktop does the job plus more. Console wise, most rather go to Xbox and Playstation.

It was going to be a huge battle for steam anyways. Taking on Microsoft on two grounds (Xbox and desktop) and playstation.

I think the best thing they did was make the SteamOS and the controller. I'm no longer a Steam user but the SteamOS was great for my time using it on my HTPCs. The controllers were awesome. I loved using it but in the end I sold them to those who were really into Steam because majority of my game diet is fighting games and I use my Logitech F370s and Hori Mini-Fighting Sticks 90% of the time.

Converting PC Gamers into Console-Like gamers is not a great move. But giving them the tools to game as they please will be more beneficial and easier to roll out.

I don't want to be overly optimistic but this could mean many things. I guess now it's important to watch what happens with SteamOS and Valve's contributions to the Linux platform such as graphics driver development.

If they stop with that too that would be unfortunate. If they do, I think it'd be best if someone filled that vacuum by developing another gaming-oriented distro.

Linux wasn't ready at the time Valve announced Steam Machines and SteamOS. It still isn't quite ready. AMD drivers need time, VR needs time, Vulkan still needs time.
I don't know why Valve came out with it prematurely, but I guess something had to be done at that time, to push Linux development and to slow down Microsoft closing down Windows. Microsoft is doing so now. They are clearly pushing UWP and Windows S-Mode and show the tendency to want to abandon Win32, which Steam needs to exist on Windows. According to his latest statements, at least G. Newell seems to see it that way. So in my opinion abandoning Linux would be an idiotic thing to do by Valve, and the only question is how they plan to push it, and when they think the time is right!

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